The Paranormal Database

White Figure

Location: Oxford - All Souls College
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This robed figure drifts from the rear of the chapel to the library, where it vanishes without trace.

Napier

Location: Oxford - Banbury Road
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Found guilty of heinous crimes, Napier was executed, and his body cut into segments that were scattered around the city boundaries. Napier's ghost has found all his body but not his head, and now travels along Banbury Road searching for the missing piece.

Sounds of a Pig

Location: Oxford - Black Drummer Inn (no longer standing)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A room here was haunted by 'piggy' sounds, and a leather bag was found partly eaten by something with large teeth. The spirit was destroyed when the corpse belonging to the presence was dug up from a nearby churchyard, hacked to pieces and burnt by a wise man.

Pyre

Location: Oxford - Broad Street memorial
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1996?
Further Comments: The site where several Bishops were burnt to death for their beliefs is now said to occasionally bust into phantom fire with shadowy figures within.

An old postcard showing Christ Church College in Oxford.

Charles I

Location: Oxford - Christ Church College
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The former king has been observed around the college grounds both with and without his head. A shade belonging to a former royalist commander also lurks here - he was shot for treason on the site.

John Crocker

Location: Oxford - Exeter College
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Standing in a yellow jacket and brown breeches, the ghost of John haunts the area of the chapel where his tomb is located.

Spooky Areas

Location: Oxford - Gala Bingo (was Regal cinema), no longer operating
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1990s
Further Comments: This site was said to be haunted, although details are fleeting.

Man with No Face

Location: Oxford - Gardens near Magdalen Bridge
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1947
Further Comments: A man walking through the gardens saw a misty figure that had no facial features. He ran when the entity approached him.

Singing Nuns

Location: Oxford - Godstow Nunnery, Wolvercote
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 01 May (reoccurring)
Further Comments: As dawn breaks on the first of May, phantom singing can be heard coming from the empty chapel. The phantom of Rosamund Clifford has also been reported here, though she is not so fussy as when she should appear.

A Cyclist Vanishes

Location: Oxford - Hinksey Park
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 05 January 2017
Further Comments: Two witnesses watched a shadowy cyclist travelling at speed. The figure passed behind a tree but did not materialise the other side.

Mr Jenner

Location: Oxford - Jesus College
Type: Manifestation of the Living
Date / Time: 1910
Further Comments: Two students claimed to have seen one of their teachers walking around at one night, between the chapel and dining hall, before vanishing through a brick wall - it later turned out he was visiting friends many miles away at the time.

Man with Cap

Location: Oxford - Keble College
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early March 1936
Further Comments: A Canadian student spotted a ghostly figure with a cap covering its face huddled at the end of a corridor. The witness initially did not talk about the encounter, until others claimed they had seen the phantom figure on or near a staircase. The apparition was thought to be a man who had been expelled from the college four years previous.

An old postcard showing Magdalen College in Oxford.

Figure in Black

Location: Oxford - Magdalen College
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1987
Further Comments: This dark, stealthy figure was observed several times, but never heard, as it ran about the college. When cornered by staff, the figure would suddenly vanish.

Prudence Burcote

Location: Oxford - Magpie Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The former bank that stands on the corner of the lane is reputedly haunted by Prudence. She died of a broken heart after her Cavalier lover ran away.

An old postcard showing Merton College in Oxford.

Bedroom

Location: Oxford - Merton College
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1920s?
Further Comments: Now part of the library, a bedroom that once stood on campus was reportedly so haunted that no one could sleep soundly while staying in it. The library here is also thought to be haunted by Colonel Francis Winderbank, shot after surrendering to Cromwell in 1645.

An old postcard showing New College in Oxford.

Pale Faced Man

Location: Oxford - New College
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1962
Further Comments: The chapel is haunted by a figure, possibly a priest, with an unnaturally pallid white face.

White Nun

Location: Oxford - Oxford Playhouse
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s
Further Comments: The psychical remains of the nunnery that once stood here manifest in the form of a white nun that floats around the building with a thin veil covering her face.

Mr Bonnell

Location: Oxford - Queen's College
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: 18 November 1750
Further Comments: Bonnell's ghost appeared in the college a couple of hours prior to his death, his face bloated and red. He had been bed ridden for several days, and it was impossible for him to move. The upper library is said to be haunted by a clergyman known as Cuthbert Shields - he believed himself to be the reincarnation of Saint Cuthbert.

Old Lady

Location: Oxford - Radcliffe Infirmary (closed 2007)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: December 1999 / January 2000
Further Comments: After several nights of experiencing something bump against his bed and feeling as if 'someone' was there, a patient mentioned it to nurses. They told him that the room was haunted by an old lady who would sit by the side of the bed as if giving her support. The heating would always be broken in the room - even after repairs, the system would break within the day.

Night Fisherman

Location: Oxford - River along Angel and Greyhound Meadow
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 1991
Further Comments: An old man dressed in white was spotted by two friends fishing at dusk. As the man moved towards the pair, they realised his facial features were indistinct. He stopped a short distance behind the witnesses, and as one turned to say hello (still believing the figure to be 'real'), the old man vanished.

Woman in Black

Location: Oxford - Road at bottom of Willow Walk, opposite St Lawrence's Church
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: October 1994
Further Comments: The ghostly figure of woman in black cloak emerged from Willow Walk and floated across the road and up the path at the side of St Lawrence's Church. It was believed to be the ghost of woman who travelled to meet her secret lover in Yarnton;, but the woman's husband discovered the affair and followed and murdered her.

Hanging Boy

Location: Oxford - St Edmund Hall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: The staircase at St Edmund Hall is believed to be haunted by a former student who hanged himself.

Grey Lady

Location: Oxford - St Giles' Churchyard
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This unnamed woman willed her money to charity, but her greedy family accessed her wealth first and hid it away.

An old postcard showing St John's College in Oxford.

Bowling Archbishop

Location: Oxford - St John's College
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Beheaded in London in 1645 and his body returned to St John's in 1663, Archbishop William Laud now haunts the building - his ghost is renowned for pulling his head from his neck and rolling it at any witnesses. He is also said to drift a couple of centimetres from the ground, where the pavement has worn down since his death.

Twins

Location: Oxford - St Peter's College
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This college was founded by the Bishop of Liverpool, and the ghostly male twin undergraduates who haunted the building are thought to be his sons.